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Four Things to Know About The Five Tastes

The
five recognized tastes are sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami
(savory). But, that’s not all there is to the story. Read on to learn
more about taste, and how ideas about it are still evolving.

1.
Your tongue isn’t divided into sections by taste. This was long
thought to be the case, but in truth different taste receptors
intermingle all over the tongue. It’s not hard to see why scientists
previously thought this, though. Some areas are more sensitive to
certain tastes than others: the sides of the tongue are the most attuned
areas to all tastes, while the back of the tongue is most sensitive to
bitter tastes.

2. Umami was accepted as the fifth taste in
2002, more than 100 years after it was identified by Japanese chemist
Kikunae Ikeda. Meaning roughly “delicious” in Japanese, umami became
fully accepted as one of the foundational tastes after it was proven
that our tongues have taste receptors for L-glutamate, an amino acid
responsible for the umami effect. Umami is often described as savory or
meaty, and is most present in high-flavor foods such as ripe tomatoes,
cheese, and anchovies. It’s also why MSG—monosodium glutamate—is so
potent in ramping up flavor.

3. There might be more than five
tastes. Scientists are still looking into whether the mouth has
specific taste receptors for other substances, such as fat, calcium, and
metals. Spiciness, however, definitely isn’t a taste: it’s processed in
the brain not by taste buds, but by pain receptors.

4. Your
sense of taste keeps you safe. Taste buds in the mouth come to the
rescue by sending the brain a cue when a food is poisonous or rotten,
preventing you from swallowing it or storing it in your cheek pouches.

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